MATTHEW MCBRIDE
from The Mourners Forget Which Funeral They Are At
*
Bulbs slid loose from fixtures.
Bricked in front of my door,
pillow sandbags
set against a flood of milk.
The night skies
crowned with astronauts,
and underneath, me
covering myself
with false eyelashes.
Bricked in front of my door,
pillow sandbags
set against a flood of milk.
The night skies
crowned with astronauts,
and underneath, me
covering myself
with false eyelashes.
*
In the dream,
I interrupted the autopsies
of every woman I’d slept with,
one after another.
Every day was
its own hospital.
I bruised white
as a peony.
I interrupted the autopsies
of every woman I’d slept with,
one after another.
Every day was
its own hospital.
I bruised white
as a peony.
*
There was senselessness,
collective nouns,
but only one object.
There was the time I spent
not learning piano.
My memories felt like commercials
without products.
Bodies repeated themselves.
I wished
I was in each passing plane.
collective nouns,
but only one object.
There was the time I spent
not learning piano.
My memories felt like commercials
without products.
Bodies repeated themselves.
I wished
I was in each passing plane.
*
Every time I got home
all my objects
had been wrapped
in bubble wrap.
Anything spoken
was extra.
I got blurrier close up.
The bedsheets turned
into smoke;
the rain continued an exegesis
on meaninglessness.
all my objects
had been wrapped
in bubble wrap.
Anything spoken
was extra.
I got blurrier close up.
The bedsheets turned
into smoke;
the rain continued an exegesis
on meaninglessness.
*
Tape yellowed
and became visible.
Shame waved
like migrations of dead birds
inside me.
The TV’s playing yesterday for me.
The bones of small plants.
There were only two people,
and I wasn’t one of them.
and became visible.
Shame waved
like migrations of dead birds
inside me.
The TV’s playing yesterday for me.
The bones of small plants.
There were only two people,
and I wasn’t one of them.
Copyright © November 2017 Map Literary and Matthew McBride
Matt McBride's work has appeared in or is forthcoming from Across the Margin, Cream City Review, Diagram, FENCE, Mississippi Review, Ninth Letter, PANK, and Typo amongst others. His most recent chapbook, Cities Lit by the Light Caught in Photographs, was published by H_NGM_N books in 2012. He holds an MFA from Bowling Green State University and a PhD from the University of Cincinnati. Currently, he is a lecturer in the Department of Rhetoric at the University of Iowa.
